World War II changed Tustin's landscape

Dec. 6, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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After the start of World War II, volunteers from Tustin staffed a Listening Post on the east side of Tustin under the auspices of the Tustin American Legion until the military took over in 1943. COURTESY OF TUSTIN AREA MUSEUM

After the start of World War II, volunteers from Tustin staffed a Listening Post on the east side of Tustin under the auspices of the Tustin American Legion until the military took over in 1943. COURTESY OF TUSTIN AREA MUSEUM

Dec. 7, 1941 is a date many of us will never forget, as well as the date Tustin started its journey to becoming the small metropolis it is now.

Stunned by the radio newscasters reporting eight battleships attacked with five sunk; three light cruisers, three destroyers and three small vessels damaged and 188 aircraft destroyed plus casualties including 1,104 men on the Arizona, Tustin residents started to prepare for war.

Fortunately American Legion Post 227 already had set up a California Air Warning Systems Post to identify aircraft and report their findings to the West Los Angeles Filter Center of the Fourth Fighter Command.

In a short time, the small tower in an Irvine Ranch bean field east of Tustin was up and running. In addition, a listening post was established on Newport north of Seventeenth Street.

The Tustin Volunteer Fire Department promptly divided Tustin into 10 sections and appointed teams to patrol each one.

These air raid wardens were responsible for enforcing blackout rules, making sure residents put up curtains to prevent light showing from their homes and that night drivers taped their headlights so that only a tiny slit of light could be seen.

A Police and Fire Bulletin announced that two blasts of the siren on top of the First National Bank building would be used for air raid warnings.

In addition to organizing a defense for Tustin, citizens signed up for ration books, bought war bonds, planted Victory gardens and canned the fruits and vegetables they grew. Young men and some not-so-young promptly enlisted while others awaited a call from the draft board. Japanese students at Tustin High School vanished overnight as their families, farmers in the Irvine area, were sent to relocation camps in Arizona.

Within a short time the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) was established as a light-than-air base on 1,383 acres of bean fields acquired from the Irvine Ranch on the east side of Redhill Avenue.

Many Tustin men were employed in building two massive hangers and other facilities to house the observation blimps and personnel necessary to conduct anti-submarine patrols off the Southern California coast. Tustin was surrounded by this facility, the El Toro Marine Base and the Army Air Base in Costa Mesa.

While these facilities employed many of Tustin's civilians, they also created additional traffic as well as a demand for housing.

D Street (now renamed El Camino Real), part of the California State Highway between San Diego and Los Angeles, was often crowded with military convoys in addition to cars driven by civilians and military personnel.

Tustin's few rentals were soon occupied and homeowners rented out rooms and remodeled to add apartments to their residences.

This population surge continued after the war ended with many of the men who had been stationed nearby returning to live in the Tustin area.

Orange orchards were subdivided into housing tracts and soon new schools became necessary as the population grew.

Today's population is more than 75,781, up from fewer than 1,000 when the war started. During the same time the small residential area which still exists as Old Town has expanded by annexation to 11 square miles of residential, commercial and manufacturing development.

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